“Just don’t be too obvious,” Kat said to Jacob. “Look natural. Pretend to get a call. I’ll take you off the feed with Sandy so you don’t distract her.”
“No problem,” Jacob said.
Sandy hurried back the way she came. A man with an employee badge came out of an office. “Excuse me,” she said before the man could walk off. “That restroom is closed. Could you tell me where the nearest one is?”
“The closest one on this floor is at the other end of the hall. There is one on the floor below, just outside the elevators.”
She opted for the one at the end of the hall. Inside, she checked to make sure she was alone, checking for feet in the stalls. When she was sure she was alone, she got in a stall and took out her deck and linked it with the building’s network. Now she just had to find the security system and the backdoor Xia planted. She found herself wishing they had been able to have contact with Xia and Two-Step, wanting to know the backdoor was installed. Attempting to push the thought from her mind, she worked quickly, driven by the uncertainty.
“How’s it going?” Kat asked.
“I should be in the security system any second now.”
She checked the system registry. The backdoor was there. Entering a simple command line, she took control of the security system’s video input.
“All right, I’ve got it. Put us back on three-way comms,” she said to Kat.
“Done.”
“Jacob, you can...”
The restroom door opened. Two women came in talking and laughing.
“Someone just came in,” Sandy whispered.
“All right,” Kat said. “Hold on Jacob.”
One woman got in the stall next to Sandy while the other stood outside of the stall, talking. Sandy continued to work, accessing the security systems video input feeds and output displays. She cycled through the inputs until she found the camera focused on the front of the building. She saw Jacob near the edge of the camera's field of view.
The woman in the stall finished and got out. Sandy was so focused on the security system, she hadn’t noticed the change in the tone of the women’s conversation. “I think they’re talking to you,” Kat said in her ear.
“What?”
The question was meant for Kat, but one of the women answered. “Are you okay?”
“Oh. Yes. I’m just,” she thought, trying to find the right lie.
“Tell them it’s morning sickness,” Kat suggested.
“It’s morning sickness. I’m just waiting for another wave to pass.”
“That sounded convincing,” Kat said.
“Well, congratulations, I guess,” one of the women said.
“It gets better. At least it did for me,” she added.
“Thanks.”
Sandy tried to work, but the women stood by the sink and continued to talk. They needed to leave. On the security video feed, the guard at the front door kept a close watch on Jacob. After every person he checked in, he shot a quick look in Jacob’s direction. She could superimpose the deep fake of Nicolas Cage over his image while the women were there, but she needed to tell him to come closer so the cameras had a better view of him. More than that, she needed the women to stop giving her advice about what to eat and when to eat it.
“Maybe you should pretend to throw up,” Kat said.
That sounded good, but she was sure the women would just offer more help, so she decided against it.
Finally, one of the women said they had to go, and she hoped the morning sickness got better soon.
“Thanks again,” Sandy said.
“Are they gone?” Kat asked.
“Yes. Patch me through again,” Sandy said. “Jacob, start toward the door, slowly. I’ll put the deep fake on you, but I need to make sure it’s coming through smoothly.”
Jacob put his phone in his pocket and walked toward the door. She loaded the Nicolas Cage program and attached it to Jacob’s figure. She checked the output. “Slow down just a bit,” she said. He did, and she made a few minor adjustments. It worked. The image on the screen showed a young Nicolas Cage walking up the sidewalk toward the main entrance and getting in line.
Sandy quickly turned her attention to the facial recognition scanning station. This would be trickier. Not only did she have to convince the system it was scanning Nicolas Cage and time it just right, but she also had to count on the security guard not recognizing Jacob. If he had been working at Your Better Life three years ago, it was possible. The image of Nicolas Cage stepped up to the security guard and hand him an ID card. The guard said something that was slightly distorted in the earpiece. Nicolas Cage took off his glasses and handed his backpack to the guard. While he went through the backpack, the guard said something else she couldn’t hear. Sandy held her breath. Nicolas Cage nodded and gave a little laugh and looked into the facial recognition camera. Sandy exhaled.
“Hold it there for a second,” Sandy said as she gave a few quick taps on her deck, overriding the facial recognition camera’s input data.
The guard handed the card and backpack back to Nicolas Cage and sent him through to the front door.
“Good job,” Kat said.
Sandy rubbed her eyes. “It’s not done yet,” she said.
Chapter 51
“I guess it’s working,” Jacob said as he walked through the front doors and into the Your Better Life lobby.
“It is,” Sandy said over the earpiece. “As far as the security system is concerned, Nicolas Cage has just entered the building.”
“You’re awesome.”
“Now I just have to put you on the appointment list. Give me a sec.”
Kat joined the conversation. “After you do that, link me with the camera system. I want to be able to see what’s going on if something goes wrong.”
“Will do,” Sandy said.
Jacob walked to the directory display on the far wall. Looking around, he saw the lobby hadn’t changed much in three years. Some of the plants were different, or bigger, and the art hanging from the walls was new,
